Legislation should last for decades, says Rudd; We need to rethink our relationship with Government, says Lawrence
June 10th, 2009
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has told ACTU Congress that he saw the Fair Work Act as a “fundamental reform in Labor’s proud reform tradition” – alongside Medicare and universal superannuation – that he wanted to last “for decades”.
Rudd – who unlike Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard received a standing ovation when welcomed in Brisbane by ACTU president SHaran Burrow – said that both Medicare and super were based on a partnership between Labour and the union movement and “became so strongly supported by a majority of Australians, that even a Liberal Government that spent twelve years in office could not destroy them”.
“Together, we must resolve to make the same thing true of the Fair Work Act,” he said.
“I want Fair Work to be long-term reform that endures for decades. Our resolve as a movement must be that no future Liberal Government can get away with dismantling it.”
The Prime Minister went on to pay tribute to his Workplace Relations Minister for her “extraodinary effort in working with the union movement, employers and other stakeholders to get the Fair Work Act through the Parliament, even though we don’t have the numbers in the Senate”.
Rudd said it the Government’s focus now was the second part of its modern bargain with working families – “the lifetime-long span of Labor reforms”.
“Our challenge is to ensure that all Australians have the support and the opportunities they need throughout each of the stages and points of transition in their lives – as they learn, work, raise a family, enjoy the security of proper health care, make the most of their talents and contribute to their communities.”
“This is nothing less than the modern equivalent of the Harvester judgment one hundred years ago,” he said.
ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence, who had earlier in the day drawn the battle-lines with Gillard on the construction industry issue, responded to Rudd by saying that it was challenge for both the government and an “activist” union movement to carve out a new relationship.
“It is a central challenge and it’s something that I think we knew when Labor was elected in 2007 that it was something we would need to confront because the truth is we’re in a different circumstance from the last time when Labor was elected to government in 1983,” he said.
Lawrence said there was already a process in place through ALAC [the ALP's Australian Labour Advisory Council, which is chaired by the Prime Minister] and other forums to build on the relationship and it was “important now for all of us to consider how we continue to relate as a labour movement as we go forward”.
He said the Prime Minister as result of the ALAC in March had established a process for the union movement to look at procurement decisions.
“Over the next couple of months we’ve got the opportunity of using that process to really define our relationship in Government. This is part of the economic challenge but it’s also part of teh relationship challenge we have within the labour movement,” he said.
“Our commitment on behalf of the ACTU and Congress is to work with the Government and the Prime Minister in meeting that challenge.”
www.workplaceexpress.com.au Thursday 4th June 2009